The Y'Lika Gate
by Fyrie
Summary: A Mediaeval book containing SG co-ordinates triggers curiousity in SGC, leading to a mission (typical, no?) with interesting consequences (My 1st SG1 fic)
1. Writings

This is my first ever StarGate fic, so anyone who r&rs, please be gentle! Also, its a kind of crossover with a fabulous sci-fi fiction that my good friend AKL wrote (which can be found here for curious people - http://www.fortunecity.com/rivendell/realms/440/cats/catsfic/catsfic.htm) and it is based on the musical Cats, but in a very wild and brilliant way. If you are not interested in that, could I please ask for comments on my portrayal of the characters, bearing in mind I have only seen series 2 and 3 of SG1. I would be eternally grateful. Thank you. 

Chapter One

"The co-ordinates were found in a Medieval book in England." Gathered around the commitee table with the rest of SG-1, Daniel Jackson opened out the folder and spread the sheets of paper across the surface. "No one could understand them and they were sent on to me, by a specialist colleague." 

"And they are StarGate co-ordinates?" The question was voiced by Colonel Jack O'Neill, the leader of the most infamous StarGate groups. After all, he and Jackson, the Linguist, had been two of the original group to enter the StarGate when it had first been opened, years before, and begun the project of World exploration. 

"It certainly would appear to be the case." Jackson replied. "They match symbols on the gate and, like the original co-ordinates on the coverstone, they are enclosed in a kind of cartouche, although its not completely Egyptian in style. The text surrounding them is in a language or script that I'm not familiar with, but I have been running some of the samples through the computers to see if they can identify a theme or pattern of lettering to make it comprehensible." 

"You say this book thing was Medieval?" Jackson nodded, pushing a hand through his brown hair. O'Neill frowned slightly, folding his hands on the table top, puzzlement written on his face. "But hadn't the StarGate been hidden by the Middle Ages?" 

"That's what has been causing some problems in the labs, Sir." Carter put in. She had joined their group soon after the StarGate project had become accepted. Deceptively delicate-looking with blonde hair and pretty features, she had quickly gained a reputation in her role as the astrophysicist in the group, as well as being a brave and determined soldier. "Unless the writers of the book found some writings that Archaeologists somehow missed, this book was written in England in the Middle Ages, in a never before seen language, about an unknown object that was discovered in Egypt in the 1920s." 

O'Neill ran a hand over his weathered face. "Daniel," He turned to the linguist. "You say you've been doing experiments with the language in the book. Have you got anything out of it?" 

Searching through his folder, Daniel nodded, withdrawing a bundle of sheets. "Some pages were damaged, so it doesn't make a lot of sense in some areas. There's a possibility that this was a copy of earlier documents." Flicking through the sheets, he withdrew one. "Judging by the writing style, the co-ordinate symbols at least were copied from some other source." 

"So where was it copied from?" 

"I-I don't know yet." Jackson shrugged helplessly, pushing his glasses up his nose. "We've managed to translate some pieces, but we need more time to work on it. There's mention of a conflict, an invasion of some kind and the species, the "tribe" they call themselves, managed to get a small number of their kind to Earth and to safety from the invaders, although - according to what we've pieced together - Earth wasn't the original target for a shelter." 

"When and where on Earth did this happen?" 

The linguist raised his eyes. "In what we call Ancient Egypt." He replied quietly. 

"So a species of alien arrived on our planet in the time that the StarGate was still functioning?" Jackson and Carter exchanged glances, then nodded. O'Neill leaned forward. "And you don't think they could have kept their history in books like, oh say, that one you've got in the labs?" 

"It is possible." 

"How possible?" 

Examining a sheet, Daniel replied. "Almost a hundred percent." 

"And would any of this species still be around?" 

"We're not even sure what race of aliens they are, Sir. They call themselvesd Y'lika or something along those lines. Its nothing that we've ever heard of before." 

"Daniel, do you have anything?" 

"I can't be sure until the translation is double-checked, but there's some kind of description of a sundering, some time many millenia ago, nearly a thousand years after their initial arrival." 

"A sundering?" 

Daniel scratched his cheek with his index finger. "A separation of sorts." Leaning forward, he snatched a pen from the table. "Just a second..." Scanning through the sheets in front of him, he frowned. "If I understand this right, the alien species split their form into two, so they could continue to live on this planet undetected." 

"So we have a race of split-in-half-aliens running around on Earth?" O'Neill rocked back in his seat. "Just when I was thinking I would have a quiet weekend." Gazing at Daniel, his eyes half-closed, he asked. "Is there anything about that race miraculously going home through the lost StarGate?" 

Thumbing through a wad of sheets, Jackson shook his head. "There was some mention of a home-coming and the Master, but nothing about it being successful. That could be in the missing or damaged pages, but the Master appears a lot and it seems they were waiting for him." 

"Ra?" 

"It doesn't seem so." Daniel replied, withdrawing a sheet with a copy of an elaborate, although slightly faded illustration from the aged book. In the image, there was a shadowy, almost shapeless figure with gleaming, scarlet eyes. "There's a little written about him, with the word Ha'rum'kha, so I guess that's his name." He gestured with his right hand. "He's described as the Master of this world, the core and central power of it. There's no mention of Ra." 

"And there's something about invaders? Could Ra and the goa'uld have been these invaders?" 

"Yes and no." 

"Yes and no? What's that meant to mean?" 

Exhaling a breath, Daniel looked up at O'Neill. "It seems like there was an invasion by some kind of alien that almost wiped out the whole species. There's mention of previous visits, peaceable ones, but this one...it almost sounds like an army of Anubis had been unleashed. There's a picture of one of the invaders..." He pushed the copied image towards O'Neill, who lifted it up to study it. 

"Looks like a human with a dog's head, not just one of those helmets." 

"Thats why I said it may or may not have been Ra." Daniel acknowledged quietly. "Its possible that there may be a race of dog-headed aliens, or the artist doing these illustrations may have taken some artistic liscence when drawing the figure and thought it may have looked more threatening in that style than simply by using the image of a Goa'uld in a helmet." 

"If there was a StarGate present on their world, it suggests that the Goa'uld have been present." Teal'c murmured, his forefingers steepled beneath his chin. The serious-looking, exotic-looking male alien was the fourth member of their group and a Jaffa. 

The Goa'uld were seen as the soldiers of the army of "Gods", the aliens intending to dominate the Galaxy, through violence if necessary. Humanoid in appearance, the Goa'uld were symbiotes, joined with a parasite-like creature. Teal'c himself, as an adult Jaffa, contained an infant Goa'uld within his body. 

Teal'c was one of the few, possibly the only, to change sides, the only outwardly visible evidence of his previous affiliations being the embossed gold disk on the centre of his forehead and the neutral, reactionless expression that never left his face, even in the most perilous of situations. 

Daniel spread his hands. "That's where we have another problem." 

O'Neill raised a brow. "Oh good. Another one. Can't have just the one problem, can we?" Daniel gave him a helpless look. "So what is this one? 

"They didn't have a StarGate at their end, before they sent the "tribe" through. They didn't use one." 

"But that's impossible!" Carter straightened up in her seat. "You can't emerge from a StarGate without going through one at the other end!" 

"I know that, Sam, but that's what the book says." Reading through some of his notes, he quoted. "The wizards at the Citadel - I'm guessing that was their central point of power - joined their powers to open a gateway from nothing to allow five and twenty chosen ones to seek refuge on another world. There was much pain and suffering, the battle raging, as the powers connected with an accessible doorway on another World, forcing it to open and accept them. Those chosen few entered the doorway to the new World and it closed once more behind them." 

"How does that prove that there wasn't a StarGate?" 

"The opening a gateway from nothing suggests it and the fact that they had to force a wormhole to open on another World back it up." Daniel answered. "From the sounds of it, they had some very powerful mystical agents who had the power to form a mental StarGate just long enough to allow a small contingent of their kind to escape." 

"Then why do we have the co-ordinates to the gate if it didn't exist?" O'Neill demanded. 

"If an unclaimed planet linked to a StarGate, Ra and Apophis would both have been aware of it." Teal'c said. "He would wish to find this planet and, if it was suitable, he would place a StarGate there. If the magical force was powerful enough to open a wormhole from the planet of origin, it is certain that he would be intrigued by it. I believe that there will probably be a StarGate there now." 

"You think its possible that someone could open a wormhole from the inside? With magic?" O'Neill asked skeptically. 

"It would be possible, although it would probably cause the deaths of those performing the task." The former Jaffa answered calmly. "For them to perform it, they would have been formidable magicians." 

O'Neill raised a hand, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, but I just can't accept this explanation. For me, magicians are the guys in top hats and cheap costumes who make balloon animals and pull rabbits out of hats. I can't see them opening a wormhole by mind-power alone." 

"We can't prove it, Jack." Jackson replied quietly. "It is possible, though." 

"Then why are the co-ordinates in that book? Why didn't they use them, instead of just writing them down? Why did the race go to the trouble of 'sundering' themselves," He made airquotes with his fingers. "If they could have simply returned through the gate, using the co-ordinates?" 

"Well, the gate was sealed and buried in Ancient times." Sam suggested. "Maybe, they got the gate's co-ordinates some time after the humans had buried the StarGate and they had no choice but to sunder themselves, to save their species." 

"So who would be the one writing the book, then? You said its written in an unknown language, right?" 

Daniel nodded. "If the species split into two forms, I would assume that one of those forms was human, to allow them to move freely." He said. "If this was the case, it could be the human form who wrote the book and continued to record the history of the species, which would explain why they kept the co-ordinates - in case they ever found a gate to take them home." 

"In it's own language?" 

"Sir, it would have to be written in some kind of different language." Sam said. "If you wrote in a human's language about space travel, supernatural Masters and overlords and magic during the Middle Ages, you would probably have been executed for being a follower of Satan." 

"Well, that solves that mystery." O'Neill sat back, his palms spread on the tabletop. "So what are we gonna do with this information? Do we go through the StarGate to see what these invaders were? Do we find out what this species is and whether they managed to get back to their planet by some other means?" 

Sam nodded. "Sir, a probe was sent through as soon as Daniel located the co-ordinates on the Gate. The terrain was too rough for it to move far and the gate was positioned awkwardly so it could not show the full gate, but the conditions it relayed are almost identical to those on Earth, so it would be safe to at least scope it out." 

"And the chances of these invaders still being there?" 

"There's a chance, Jack, but they've been there for almost seven thousand years now. They're probably civilised beings and if they're not, we don't have to approach them, unless strictly necessary. If we encounter hostility, we can always set a seal on the gate for after we leave." 

"You're really fired up about this, aren't you, Daniel?" 

"I-I just think the whole world sounds fascinating." 

"If we come under attack, I'll remember that." 


	2. Arrival

Notes - this is going to be a fairly brief chapter, because I have to double-check details about this planet with it's owner (it feels weird typing that, but I digress...). I should have more up tomorrow, or this evening at the earliest. Hopefully, as soon as possible, cos I'm having way too much fun with ideas for this!  
minihagrid - thank you SO much for a good review :) most people just say 'write more now', so thank you for the constructive feedback and sorry about the meanderings in the middle of the chapter. I was working things out as I typed.  
Lady Cinnabar - Yes, you worked it out! I am evil! Muahahaha! But here...have more fic :) I'm not THAT evil. Yet ;)  
  
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"Well...this is nice." Scanning the dim cavern that they had emerged in, a blazing flare held overhead, O'Neill grinned down at Daniel,who was sprawled on a pile of rubble and shattered rock, covered from head to foot in a coat of dust. "Fascinated yet, Daniel?"  
  
"Could you...uh...maybe help me up? I seem to be caught on something."  
  
"Sure." Shouldering his kit to one side, the flare still held in his left hand, O'Neill stretched out his right hand to Daniel, hauling him upright. The Linguist staggered forward a step, turning to look down at what he had snagged onto, a look of surprise crossing his face. "What?"  
  
"Is that what I think it is?"  
  
Teal'c stepped around the two and approached the vessel that Daniel had fallen on, the vehicle half-buried in the grit and loose grey stone surrounding them. "It is one of the oldest models of Goa'uld scout vessel, used over five millenia ago." He stated. "These would be sent to inspect the condition of a StarGate, if there had been some fault occurring."  
  
"And did they crash and bury themselves underground a lot too?" O'Neill inquired dryly.  
  
"Perhaps it is a traditional landing technique from times past." The Jaffa responded, just as dryly. He moved around the vessel to the area that housed the cockpit, one brow rising marginally at the sight of a corpse protruding from the shattered screen, the body shriveled and clearly inhuman in origin. "It appears that Ra sent otherworld technicians to deal with this gate."  
  
"They did a real good job of it too." O'Neill returned his attention to the closed StarGate briefly. "Carter, whats up?"  
  
Major Carter looked around from the gate which, like the scout vessel, was partially buried and so heavily coated in dust that it could barely be identified as a seperate structure from the towering walls that crowded in on them. Only the minimum of the outer rings were blocked, which meant the gate could be opened, but it was resting against the walls at a forty five degree angle, seeming to balance precariously against a narrow lip of rock.   
  
"I don't think either of these things started out here." She replied, returning her gaze to the gate. "Ra usually would place a StarGate at places of importance or that would be easily accessible, like open plains. He wouldn't put it in a cave that would be so hard to reach."  
  
"Maybe they were buried by an earthquake or something?"  
  
"I don't think so, Sir." She ran her hand along the rim ot the gate. "If it had been an earthquake, there would be structural damage to the gate and this cave wouldn't be so clearly defined." She glanced at him. "If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that the gate and the ship were both dragged down here and buried by the invaders."  
  
"I believe Major Carter is right." Teal'c added. "There are lacerations on the outer surfaces of the vessel that should not have been there. They could have been caused if the vessel was dragged along the ground. It appears that the invaders did not wish anyone else to share their territory."  
  
O'Neill nodded. "It looks like they've been here for a while as well."  
  
"Uh, Jack?"  
  
"Daniel?"  
  
The linguist was standing near the cockpit, staring down at the ground. "You might wanna take a look at this." The other three hurried towards him and he motioned to the dirt at his feet. "I don't think we're the only ones who have been in here since these things were buried."  
  
In the inches deep dust, there were distinct markings that looked almost like pawprints, complete with indentations of claws.  
  
The only difference was that the pawprints had clearly defined toes and heels, unlike any wild or domestic earth animal.  
  
While, at first glance, they looked like simple pawprints with a circular indentation behind them, with some abberation of vision, the paw prints became footprints made by feet with pads on soles and toes, much like on the soles of felines and canines on Earth.  
  
Squatting down on his toes, O'Neil traced a finger around the pawprint closest to him. "Okay..." He looked up at his three companions. "Either we had a lion wandering around in here with a ball tied to the back of it's ankle, or we've just found out what the feet of the natives of this place look like."  
  
"How long ago do you think they were here?" Jackson asked, glancing around. "It can't have been that recently."  
  
"If Teal'c is right about the age of the ship..." Teal'c gave him a measured look and O'Neill raised his hand in submission. "All right, the vessel is over five thousand years old, so if it was buried about then and it took this long for this much dust to generate, the last people to visit could only have passed through here a couple of years ago."  
  
"So they could belong to the invaders?"  
  
"Or survivors of your Y'likas, Carter." O'Neill straightened up, glancing around. "We need to get out of this cave, if we're going to see what this planet's about and that looks like a good place to start." He motioned across the darkened cave towards a chink of light gleaming between the stones. "Looks like we're going to have to dig ourselves out."  
  
"Its not like we haven't done that before." Jackson muttered, shrugging off his rucksack and following O'Neil across the rough, unlevel ground towards the small speck of light. "Maybe they won't have filled in the hole too much."  
  
"I would say that is hoping for too much, Daniel Jackson."  
  
Daniel pulled a sour face. "I thought you might say that."  
  
***  
  
"This place is incredible."  
  
"Daniel, you say that about every planet we visit."  
  
The historian grinned weakly. "Well, they are all pretty amazing, but this..." He gestured to the sweeping, grassy plain edged by gentle hills that swelled into mountains that they had broken out into, after an hour of digging their way out of the cave contaning the carefully buried StarGate and Goa'uld ship. "Wow."  
  
"Again, that's what you say every time."  
  
"At least he's reliable, sir." Carter couldn't help smiling.  
  
"Yeah, yeah."  
  
Behind them, a sloping rockface rose to tower high above them, the opening of the cave still visible. Apparently, they had emerged from a cave at the mouth of a valley, in a steep canyons, which opened out into a plain spread with golden grasses that swayed gently in a summery breeze and on into a beautiful forest.  
  
On the horizons to the East and West, mountains were almost clearly visible, deep purple in the distance and tipped with white clouds, stark against the clear blue sky. A river ran nearby, through the valley that they had just exited, what looked like water flowing onwards, south, across the plain.  
  
The trees were scattered here and there and drew together to form the forest ahead of them, some evergreen, some coniferous. The variety of colours were incredible and beautiful, some the familiar green of earth, but others, strange hues of scarlet, violet and amber.  
  
"Which way, Colonel?"  
  
Jack glanced at her. "Are your gizmos picking up any signs of civilization?"  
  
"O'Neill," Teal'c pointed towards the south-east. "There is a large settlement over a hundred kilometers in that direction."  
  
A pained look crossed Daniel's face. "Nothing closer?"  
  
"A few isolated shacks, but the best bet does seem to be aiming for the main settlement." Sam looked at Jack. "What do you think, Colonel? Do we risk that journey, if it could mean walking into hostile territory?"  
  
O'Neill was gazing pensively in the direction that Teal'c had pointed. "These people hated Ra when he tried to take over thousands of years ago." He remarked, half-talking to himself. "Maybe they would want to be allies in the fight against the Goa'uld now as well."  
  
"It is always a possibility, Sir."  
  
"If not, we'll know to close down the gate and we don't need to approach, unless we know that they are civilised..."  
  
"So do we go?"  
  
The Colonel nodded. "Let's check it out. There's no harm in it and it'll shut Daniel up."  
  
"Hey!"  
  
"You know you would have wanted to say something if he said we were going straight back." Sam chuckled.  
  
"Well, yeah," Daniel grumbled, following O'Neil, Carter and Teal'c down the smooth slope towards the plain and forest. "But that's not the point."  
  
"That is always your excuse, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c glanced back at him.   
  
"He always has to be consistant." Carter smirked.  
  
"Or boring." O'Neill added, muffling a laugh at Jackson's sound of indignation. "Come on, Daniel. Keep up. We don't want you getting lost on your fascinating planet, do we?" 


End file.
